My break is over!

My unintentional break from blogging must come to an end.  I don't know why, but I am finding it difficult to find my words lately.  Maybe it's summer..I don't know, but after attending my lovely little guild's Sew-In Day yesterday, and seeing and hearing all the quilty things that are happening,  I am now totally inspired to get back to my blog and get back on track.  I have to get back on track with my blogging or risk getting kicked out of the the Nova Scotia Quilting Bloggers Quartet!

 You wouldn't kick me out, would ya girls!!lol  We will have lots of blogging material after we get together on Saturday for the Northumberland Quilt Guild's Quilt Show in Pictou.  Excited to see you all there.  
 My shoulder issue is sorted out and I am now playing catch up with my projects.  My lovely quilty buddy, Adrienne, helped me out with taking a few outside photos of  my latest finish, "I Love Chai".
Here is my rendition of Katie Clark Blakesley's pattern, "Spiced Chai" from the book "Vintage Quilt Revival".  I love patterns that put an updated spin on a traditional block design and an alternate setting.  
For the prints, I used Handcrafted by Alison Glass ( a fat quarter pack of the entire line that I won in a  giveaway), and for the solids, five different Kona greys and a Kona white for the background.

I had fun with the free motion quilting even if it did put my shoulder out of commission for a while.   In the centre of the star, free motion feathers.  In the star points, organic free motion straight line (very organic!)   In the background, swirls and pebbles and in the tea leaves, swirls with some plain squares for definition.
Lots of bobbin winding and spool changing as I used matching colours of threads.  I used Aurifil, Wonderfil and Zwicky threads.  All 50wt with a 80/12 Superior Topstitch needle.

                                           "I LOVE CHAI"  

60" x 60"

And here's the back.....Ikea "Nummers" with a pieced strip of leftover squares  and a scattering of raw edge appliqued squares. Love how it turned out. I sewed together four HSTs that didn't get used for the front,  to make the label.  For binding, the darkest teal

 A few more shots...

Thanks so much for taking these awesome photos, Adrienne.  You rock! 
I made this quilt especially for my lovely little guild's quilt show as part of the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival in October, but lots more on that in the near future.  

A Flimsy Finish for me too!  My attempt to make 63 paper pieced blocks for the quilt that I am making for my son, from the Carolyn Friedlander pattern, "Aerial" has been downgraded to 35 blocks and is now ready for quilting.  I wimped out, which is not usually my style, but I figured "done is better than perfect" (ala Angela Walters) and I really did not want to spend the time required to make the queen sized beauty and I didn't want it to become a UFO.  It ends up at 63" x 75" which is a nice cuddly size.

I enticed RetiredHub to tear all the paper off the back. He is such a quilty sweetheart!
 

I will straight line quilt this one.  I hope to have it completed before the end of August as my son will be home from Edmonton just for a quick visit.  

I have a few more projects on the go but I will save them for another day.  One of the projects is a big secret that I have to keep until September as part of my lovely little guild's mini quilt challenge. I have the top and back all pieced, just need to add some quilting.  

I hope you had time to get some quilting done today!